October 30, 2009 THE TRIUMPH OF FAITH by Cornelius R. Stam Printer Friendly Version "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (I John 5:4). There are many who look upon faith as an abstract sort of thing. Some suppose faith is merely looking on the bright side of things; to others it is will-power; still others confuse it with a person's view-point. In the Bible, faith is simply believing God. "Faith" is the noun and "believe" the verb. This is seen in Rom. 4:5, where the Apostle Paul declares: "To him that worketh not but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." The above passage from I John 5 also makes this plain, when seen in its context: "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. "Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God" (Vers. 4,5). It is, then, the believer in Christ, and only the believer in Christ, who can overcome the world. Unbelievers are swept away by the attractions and the pretentions of this world- system, but the believer in Christ need not be. St. Paul declared by divine inspiration that unbelievers follow "the course of this world," directed by Satan, "the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2). We do not mean to imply that believers are not often tempted to follow "the course of this world." Indeed the world would sometimes entice or intimidate us, but "this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." To the Reader: Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface: "It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles." We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.